Armenian Online Radio “Aliq Media” in Tbilisi

Aliq Media is a Tbilisi-based Armenian online radio. The media outlet aims at boosting integration of ethnic Armenians - residing Georgia - into the general population. Having this purpose, the radio continuously and voluntarily informs the Armenian minorities of various events happening in Georgia.

Over a year ago, a couple of Armenian youngsters living in Tbilisi developed an initiative of launching a radio that would help local Armenians receive alternative information on public life. Being aware of the local Armenians’ lack of Georgian language skills, the volunteers considered doing Georgian news in Armenian language.

Along with other co-supporters, Aliq Media greatly enjoyed a mutual project by Open Society Georgia Foundation, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and a Prague-based organization, Sourcefabric. The project provided technical assistance and know-how for Aliq Media including a small-scale start-up grant.

It has been more than a year that Aliq Media’s ten volunteers are arduously involved in the Georgian media life actively reporting about political, social and cultural matters actual in the country.

“It is one of our core goals to transform into FM radio, which will have much broader audience,” says Arsen Kharatyan, the radio Manager. According to him, moving toward the new format will be not solely a positive moment for his team, but also connected to an increased responsibility and intensive preparation.

Looking back to April this year, Aliq Media largely broadcasted the conflict escalation between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh. The radio representatives declare that they did contribute in alleviating informational bias and vacuum existing among the both parties engaged in the process.

Pavel Oganezov, Aliq’s Sound Editor and Director says his team and himself have long-oriented plans in terms of broadly providing objective and qualitative information for all ethnic minorities living in Georgia.

Aliq Media’s young Anchor, Aghabet Simonyan, plays a significant role in radio’s daily news production. In his analysis, he largely incorporates photo, video and audio materials. The young journalist declares that a myriad of positive comments arriving from their audience further bolsters their enthusiasm to keep the course and develop further.

The term “Aliq” has an Armenian meaning of a wave, which simply associates with radio. Moreover, interestingly, an Armenian newspaper called Aliq used to exist in Tbilisi as of 1906. Relatively, it could be assumed that today’s online radio is somewhat a natural continuation of its predecessor, which operated over a century ago in the Georgian capital.